Spaceflight Insider

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After announcing a 24-hour slip to Dec. 12, SpaceX has pushed back the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CRS-13 Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station again to Friday, Dec. 15.

In a brief but pointed Dec. 11, 2017, ceremony at the White House, President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, which officially directs NASA to send astronauts back to the Moon as a precursor effort to exploring Mars.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is making final preparations to launch CRS-13 in what should be the company's 17th launch of the year. The flight-proven Falcon 9 and Dragon vehicles are scheduled to lift off on Dec. 12 during an “instantaneous” launch window that opens at 11:46 a.m. EST (16:46 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Blue Origin is getting ready to fly a New Shepard suborbital rocket sometime between Dec. 11–14. On Dec. 9, 2017, the company issued a notice to airmen, also called a NOTAM, for the area around its rocket site near Van Horn, Texas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX hosted a briefing to members of the media on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, to provide an overview of work that has been done to return to service Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) after the Sept. 1, 2016, explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket caused severe damage to the site.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) has been given the green light to stay attached to the aft portion of the International Space Station's Tranquility node for a further three years. The new contract began in November 2017, according to NASA.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-8 cargo spacecraft departed from the International Space Station at 8:11 a.m. EST (13:11 GMT) on Wednesday, December 6, 2017, after delivering almost 7,400 pounds (3,356 kg) of cargo to support science experiments.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the CRS-13 Dragon spacecraft has slipped again, with NASA stating that the new launch time is now Dec. 12, with the "instantaneous" launch window opening at 11:46 a.m. EST (16:46 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Using a Long March 2D booster, China has successfully sent its newest Yaogan Weixing remote sensing satellite into orbit. The launch was conducted at 04:11 GMT on Sunday, Dec. 3 (11:11 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 2), 2017, from the LC43 Launch Complex at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gansu Province.

The recent failure of a Soyuz 2.1b mission, which was unable to place a fleet of 19 satellites into their targeted orbits, has not stopped Russia from sending another such booster into space. This time, lifting off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 10:43 GMT (5:43 a.m. EST) on Saturday, December 2, 2017, a Soyuz 2.1b successfully orbited the Lotos-S1 (№ 803) military spacecraft for the Russian Defense Ministry.

Following the recent announcement about the company's preparations for the upcoming launch of its Electron rocket, Rocket Lab is now targeting a 10-day window in early December. Opening at 2:30 p.m. New Zealand Time (01:30 GMT) Dec. 8, 2017, the window will last for four hours during each of the attempts.

The rover for NASA's Mars 2020 mission bears a strong resemblance to the Curiosity rover currently exploring the surface of Mars. However, it will have a number of improvements and instruments to carry out its search for signs of past microbial life on the Red Planet. A recent NASA press release described the rover as a "souped-up science machine".

A Soyuz 2.1b launched with 19 satellites, including the Earth-observation satellite Meteor-M 2-1, at 2:41 p.m. local time (12:41 a.m. EST / 05:41 GMT) Nov. 28, 2017, from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East. While the initial ascent appeared to go according to plan, communications with the Fregat-M upper stage and the payload was not established as planned.